tenant rights

Dear PoPville – Lease Changed to Charge $1500 for a new Roomate!?!

By Prince Of Petworth

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Photo by PoPville flickr user Mr. T in DC

“Dear PoPville,

I live at the Allegro apartments on 14th street NW. It is currently managed by Bozzuto after they took over about a year ago. I have been in the building for almost two years and we’ve had to replace roommates twice. We were never fined or asked to pay any kind of roommate transfer fee to switch names on the lease and release the old tenant from legal obligations (in legalese: novation).

That is, until recently. At the start of September, we got a new roommate and are now in the process of transferring names on the lease. However, when we looked over the new lease we saw one very serious change. Contained in the Occupancy section at the very end of the paragraph in normal type and font is a clause that says for any future name changes on the lease, the tenants must pay a non-refundable roommate release fee of $1500.00! It is worth noting that this was in an uninitialized section of the lease and there has never been any building-wide announcement of the change. After some inquiry, we learned that this fine will also be imposed at lease renewal if one of the current tenants leaves and the lease must be changed. So essentially departing tenants are penalized for leaving the apartment at the end of their legal obligations to the building, and remaining tenants are penalized for choosing to stay if at least one person leaves. The administration has also refused to recognize the tenants association that was started when they came on last year, and will only handle problems on an individual basis and wouldn’t give us any contact information for the Association.

Basically, I’m interested in learning what folks out in PoPville land know about such novation/release fees and what is reasonable under DC tenant law. I always thought that such penalties were instituted to cover the costs associated with having to rewrite the lease, not to be used as a weird form of extortion.”

From the Forum – Getting a Security Deposit back

By Prince Of Petworth

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Photo by PoPville flickr user ep_jhu

Getting a Security Deposit back:

“I moved out of my apartment over 3 months ago and my landlord still has not returned my security deposit. He has said via email he has mailed a couple checks to my new address but none have shown up. I know legally he was required to return it within 45 days, but I’m not sure what the next step is to enforce this. Office of the Tenant Advocate? Department of Consumer Affairs? Small Claims court? Anyone have experience seeking a legal solution?”

You can see all forum topics and add your own here.

Dear PoPville – Should a Renter Have to Coordinate with Contractors?

By Prince Of Petworth

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Photo by PoPville flickr user Mr. T in DC

“Dear PoPville,

I live in a rowhome that’s split into multiple apartments; the landlord lives in the area but about an hour’s drive away. We’ve been having some persistent maintenance issues (appliances & fixtures, drywall & painting, pest control — your typical stuff) that require visits from various contractors, sometimes multiple appointments for the same issue.

The landlord has requested that someone in the house coordinate visits with the contractors and that one of us should be here (with keys to all the units) to meet them. It’s getting to be a bit much — nobody here has time to take off from work and planning your weekend around maintenance on a home you don’t even own gets old, too. Shouldn’t it be the homeowner/landlord’s responsibility to make sure the units are in good condition?”

From the Forum – Difficulty with landlord re: AC Unit

By Prince Of Petworth

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Photo by PoPville flickr user Hopadidl

Difficulty with landlord re: AC Unit:

“We recently had some issues with our AC unit and had our landlord’s HVAC service come take a look at it. They informed us that it was malfunctioning because there was no filter in the unit – which was causing buildup on the coil(s).

There have been a few repairs/maintenance done on the AC unit in the past year – so it’s clearly someone from that service who removed our filter and didn’t replace it, or inform us that it needed to be replaced.

We’ve never changed the filters, because we have no idea how and have never had to worry about that in a rental unit before. Unfortunately, when I checked my lease agreement, it is listed as our responsibilities under a long list of other things that up until now – our landlord has gone above and beyond to take care of for us.

So, we fail at constantly checking on and changing the filters. But this damage was caused by whoever took the last filter out and said nothing.

The price tag on fixing this is over $1000 – which our landlord informs us we must pay for or he’s terminating our lease. I am just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience, knows anything about this issue, or has any advice at all?”

You can see all forum topics and add your own here.

From the Forum – Landlord wants to move back into house we are renting – what rights do we have?

By Prince Of Petworth

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Photo by PoPville flickr user ekelly80

Landlord wants to move back into house we are renting – what rights do we have?

“Hello! Before I get started, yes, I’ve tried calling the appropriate places but haven’t been able to get any kind of answer just yet. I’ve tried a few different websites and made some calls but it’s been frustrating, especially when things are happening so quickly.

On June 1st, my boyfriend and I moved in to a group house and signed a one year lease. We rent two rooms upstairs in this house. Another roommate (roommate 3) moved in for the summer into the other spare room. Her lease is from 6/1 – 8/31. The three of us share one bathroom. We have a fourth roommate (roommate 4) in the basement who has her own bathroom attached to her room but she shares the other common areas with all of us.

We found out last Friday, 8/2/2013, that are our landlord wants to move back into our house the end of this month once Roommate 3 vacated the room. She is also bringing her teenage son with her. Both of them were going to live in that room until our lease term was up. Roommate 3 was hoping to stay in the room month to month once the initial term was up as her job offered to extend her contract – she was working out the details. My boyfriend and I asked the landlord if her plans were set in stone and if so, what happens if we break our lease since this new arrangement will not work for us. She said we had 60 days (until the end of October) to find a new place, per our lease agreement.

My questions (more…)

From the Forum – My rights regarding interest on my security deposit?

By Prince Of Petworth

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Photo by PoPville flickr user elliotmitchell

My rights regarding interest on my security deposit?

“I’m hoping someone knows more about this than I do – I rent an apartment in a row house in DC and from what I understand, DC tenants are able to be returned their security deposit with interest within 45 days of their departure from their apartment (assuming no damage is found, etc.)

As I’m preparing to move out, I realized that I signed the lease nearly two years ago and it says that in there that the security deposit will be returned to the tenant without interest.

Did I sign away my right to collect this interest? Is this legal? Obviously I signed and it’s my own fault if that happened, but I want to make sure that it’s within their right to have that in the terms of the lease agreement.”

You can see all forum topics and add your own here.

Dear PoPville – 30 Day Vacancy Notice Question

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user ekelly80

“Dear PoPville,

My roomate and I have found an apartment we would like to move to. We currently live in a managed apartment building and are going month to month right now. We thought that you could give a 30 day notice to vacate on any day, and then we would pay a prorated amount of rent for the following month until the 30 days were up. They tell us that the 30 day vacancy notice is only accepted on the first of the month. Do you guys know if that’s legal? I can’t seem to find a clear answer while searching online.”

Dear PoPville – Dealing with a Mice Problem

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user ekelly80

“Dear PoPville,

I need some guidance and hoping your readers can steer me in the right direction. I’ve been having a small mice problem in my apartment and have reported the problem to my rental agency multiple times; over the course of a couple of months. They finally had a pest control company come out a couple of weeks ago (after I’ve kept bugging them) but it didn’t seem to do anything – the man put down some poison powder and a couple of glue traps. I’m getting increasingly frustrated but don’t know what I can really do except keep bugging my rental agency.

If you’ve been in the same or similar situation, what did you do?”

You are def. not alone.

Dear PoPville – Landlord or Tenant’s Responsibility?

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user yostinator

“Dear PoPville,

I just moved into an English basement and, as you would expect, it is a little damp and humid. I looked into getting a dehumidifier but have found that decent models can be quite expensive. My question for the PoP community is: Is purchasing a dehumidifier the occupant’s or landlord’s responsibility? Are there any codes on this, regarding providing a healthy living space? Have any basement dwellers had their landlords provide a dehumidifier for them?”

Dear PoPville – Should My Landlord Pay For Hotel or offer other Compensation During Renovations?

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user Mr. T in DC

“Dear PoPville:

Due to an ongoing rodent problem in my apartment (in a converted rowhouse in Logan), my landlord is proposing to completely redo our kitchen. This will supposedly seal all the cracks and holes where the mice and rats are getting into the house, and give me a new kitchen to boot. The landlord is also repairing or replacing the roof, which leaks and has caused water damage in the walls. All told, he estimates that there will be about two weeks of work outside and two to three weeks of work inside the house.

The landlord is currently asking for our thoughts on moving forward with the project, including scheduling. Obviously I want to deal with the rodent problem, and a full reno of the kitchen seems like the best way to accomplish this. However, I’m not looking forward to losing my kitchen for several weeks, nor the possibility of having to move out of the apartment. My question to the commentariat is: what should I ask the landlord for in compensation, if anything? I think that if we have to move into a hotel room for any period of time, he should cover that cost. Should we also ask for a rent abatement for the time that the kitchen is unusable? If our rent is close to $2000 a month, how much should we ask for?

Thanks!”

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